Beverage slushes (drinkable liquid with a semi-solid or slushy consistency) are popular treats. Such beverages contain dispersions of ice in a liquid, which typically contains flavoring, sweetener, and other additives.
Methods and equipment are known to provide slush beverages in commercial and home environments. In commercial environments, such beverages may need to undergo constant mechanical agitation to prevent agglomeration of the ice crystals. At home or in food service industries, such beverages may be produced using blenders or other similar equipment just prior to consumption. Thus, preparation of slushy beverages requires suitable equipment and can be tedious or time-intensive, even if the necessary equipment is available.
Several products have been marketed recently to provide greater convenience, with the ability to freeze in a freezer, such as a static domestic freezer, and deliver a slush-type product. However, these products often suffer from disadvantages. Many products lack versatility to form the desired slush beverage over the range of domestic (home) freezer temperatures that are encountered. Problems encountered with these products include failure to form ice and formation of insufficient amounts of ice, which result in a cold beverage but no slushy consistency. Other products fail by over-hardening, resulting in a product that requires thawing before dispensing and/or consuming as a beverage.
Winston et al. in WO 2010/146392 disclose a slush beverage, which involves a balance of ingredients, with each ingredient having an effect on pourability of the product slush. The slush can be made using a domestic freezer or appropriate cooling apparatus. Winston et al. disclose preferably using an ice-nucleating agent (nucleator) to ensure ice formation in a domestic freezer. The preferred nucleator is stigmasterol, but the form and degree of hydration of the stigmasterol is not mentioned. While Winston et al. provide an advance in producing slush beverages in domestic environments, problems have been encountered by lack of consistent ice formation. Reliability of ice nucleation (failure rate) is an issue.
Commercially available stigmasterol exists in hydrated form, solvated form (ethanol solvent), and combinations thereof. The stigmasterol as-provided is unable to consistently maintain activity as an ice-nucleating agent in slush beverages upon common storage conditions, including time, temperature and relative humidity.
Kinneberg, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,819, discloses improved sterol nucleators of ice crystals. These sterols are specified to be ‘terminally hydrated’. This crystal form was said to stable for long periods of time and provide predictable nucleation temperatures. The preparation of terminally hydrated stigmasterol was exemplified.
There still remains a need for improved ice nucleating agents which provide consistent freeze performance. In a practical application, it is desired to have an improved ice nucleating agent that may be used, for example, in ready-to-freeze beverages containing such agents which are liquid at ambient temperature and which consistently freeze over a range of temperatures as may be encountered in domestic and commercial freezers to form a pourable slush.